Please see my reflections on The role of the “scholars” for some background to this. I always enjoy the comments of Daayiee Abdullah, the hereticalfake sheikh of Al-Fahisha who runs the MuslimGayMen group. Every time he writes, he exposes himself as a sham, yet most of the members apparently can't see it: probably because they don't want to. For some reason, he often inserts a MODERATOR'S NOTE into people's messages instead of replying to them with his own opinion, like anybody else.

For the record, and I have checked with Mujahid, there has never been any StraightWay-initiated debate on there, and neither I nor he have ever posted there. I say this for two reasons: (1) Daayiee has lied about that more than once; (2) So you know that this current MGM disagreement has nothing to do with us. StraightWay doesn't bother with them, but I want you to know what happens on these groups.

[MODERATOR'S NOTE: Brother Saleem Wala, I hope that you are aware that the people you are promoting are rabid homophobes. I have heard several of their works concerning homosexuality and they promote the destruction of homosexuals. I wonder why would you send such materials to MGM members? Are you here as a spy for them? Or, are you so self-hating that you want to see all gay Muslims suffer as you do today? I would think you would perfer a place like StraightwayUK or other organizations that promote the demise of gay Muslims. Please reply. Brother Daayiee]

MGMers, Salaam. Sorry, but I forgot to mention that these personalities are also extremely pro-Wahhabi-oriented, several are funded by the Saudi oil money, and they receive monies from ISNA and ICNA of North America. Most of that ilk are quite narrow-minded, Arab culture and tribal society focused folks. They provide their poison in small doses so it more palatable. What do you say, Brother Faisal? Brother Daayiee

Faisal Alam, founder of Al-Fatiha, is forwarding round a link to watch the vile Ayaan Hirsi Ali's (hey, didn't I call her that before?) filthy Islamophobic flick. He enthuses:

After a LOT of searching and digging, I was able to find an online copy of Submission, the controversial film that led to Theo van Gogh's assassination in the Netherlands. Some of you may remember this case. This short film is provocative and really really powerful. Pass it on to those that may be interested.

Probably he hadn't heard of Google Video before, otherwise he would find that finding it is really easy for anyone who really wants to. What agenda is he pushing here?

The plan was hailed as a breakthrough by gay rights campaigners and a sign the organisation was looking to distance itself from comments made earlier this year by its secretary general, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, who described homosexuals as 'harmful, immoral, unacceptable and diseased'.

But it has emerged that the council has rejected Aziz's claims. Inayat Bunglawala, its spokesman, insisted Aziz's views did not represent those of the MCB. He told the Islam TV Channel: 'There is no truth in these quotes. Our position is very clear, our Secretary General was nearly prosecuted for this because we maintain that homosexual relationships are sinful in Islam.'

Aziz declined to comment, telling The Observer that the MCB's attempts to distance itself from his comments was a 'matter for the MCB'.

Note how the writer (Jamie Doward) caricatures and misrepresents Sacranie's comments, placing "harmful, immoral, unacceptable and diseased" in speech quotes as though Sacranie had said these words in succession! Not so. Moreover, Sacranie was discussing same-sex partnerships and homosexual relationships, not homosexuals themselves. There is a crucial difference there, as any writer should know.

Shortly after the NUS elections, I posted my thoughts on the apparent strategy taken by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which was coordinating Muslim delegates at the conference. I also posted a follow-up.

The issue hasn't yet gone away, and the situation hasn't been helped by the silent attitude taken by FOSIS since then. As I said before, they don't have to answer for decisions taken democratically by delegates; but it would help if they explained some points, as a way of stemming the nonsense we have seen here and here and now here in the Muslim Weekly:

Aside from pointing out how unbalanced this piece by Hamza A. Bajwa is (especially for using some anonymous Leeds student as the source for all allegations, who later "rebutted" and even "confirmed"…), I only wish to reproduce the quotes of Pav, as they are quite interesting.

Pav said that his sexuality was something he was personally "contending with" and insisted he has never recognised homosexuality as permissible in Islam.

"If people understand that I recognise I have a shortcoming and that homosexuality is haram in Islam, in my view, that should be enough; this should not have been an issue in this case in my opinion. If I’d turned around and openly said ‘this is a platform I’m standing on as a gay Muslim to advocate gay rights, then even I’d have supported them (FOSIS)," he said.

Muhammed Aziz, policy advisor to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told PinkNews.co.uk that significant progress is expected following internal discussions after a productive All Party Parliamentary Group meeting earlier this year, which included the Muslim organisation and gay charity Stonewall.

Mr Aziz revealed plans to look at homophobia in the Muslim community and Islamophobia in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in reaction to controversial comments by MCB leader Sir Iqbal Sacranie on homosexuality.

There was nothing controversial about Sacranie's comments as far as the Muslim community in general was concerned, and certainly not in the light of Islam itself. I shared my own thoughts on his words back in January. There was also a column by Ruth Gledhill of the Times, in which Sacranie explained his comments and responded to accusations of homophobia:

"On the question of whether my comments were homophobic, it is utterly nonsensical to suggest that. We reject any form of discrimination, whether on the basis of race, religion, gender or age. But people cannot be bullied to remain silent on views which they believe are important for society to understand.

"The moral and religious principles are clear. In Islam there is unanimity on this subject. We do not want to be in the same position as the Anglican communion, where the scriptures say one thing but religious leaders are divided.

"We have a clear responsibility, particularly to our young, who are day in day out barraged with so much material which indirectly promotes unnatural sexual behaviour. If we remain silent now, we may regret it in years to come. In Islam the situation is clear. We detest the practice of homosexuality but we cannot discriminate, we cannot hate such people, we pray for them.”

The Muslim News reports that Nigeria is reacting to advances in "LGB rights" in the UK and elsewhere:

Nigeria has banned same-sex marriages after Justice Minister Bayo Ojo called them ‘unnatural and un-African’. […]

Even though homosexuality is already illegal in Nigeria and in the north can be punishable by stoning the guilty party to death, a further bill was deemed necessary following developments abroad. Gay unions in Nigeria are now punishable by five years imprisonment without the option of a fine. Minister Ojo added that people who support or aid these gay unions could be liable for the same punishment. Furthermore, pro-gay protests and public displays of homosexuality have all been made punishable offences.

[…] When presenting the Bill, Minister Ojo said that the Bible and the Koran prohibit gay unions.

Note: I placed "LGB rights" in inverted commas not because I believe that people identifying as L, G or B shouldn't have any rights, but because I don't believe it's right to consider same-sex unions as equivalent to marriage, either morally or legally.

Here is another of my early articles, following on from The Spirit of Al-Fatiha and Muslim Before Anything Else. Here, I emphasise the importance of distinguishing between actions and attractions, rather than remaining confused over "sexual identity" based on the notion of "orientation".

I refer to some Qur'anic verses and prophetic hadiths to establish whether people are responsible for what they feel (attractions) and what they do (actions). Basically, the answer is that one is not responsible for attractions, but entirely responsible for actions. However, the article shows that things are not necessarily as simple as that.

EDIT: It was inappropriate for us to post this "fatwa" online in the absence of information about the issuing scholar. We did so after checking that its contents were acceptable according to mainstream scholarship, and also wrote the provisos you see below, not endorsing the scholar since we don't know him. However, until this matter is cleared up, we have removed the document in question.

We received the below-linked fatwa* by e-mail, but unfortunately there wasn't much information about the scholar issuing it. His name is Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf, and I assume that it's not the same one mentioned here earlier. In fact, the signature at the end says (in Arabic): Muhammad Yusuf al-Husayni. If anyone has information about him, please do inform us.

Fatwa Concerning the Sanctity of Family in Islam [removed temporarily]

An anonymous posting on the MuslimGayMen group illustrates the importance to some people of finding "scholarly" voices that will massage their desires and assure them that their choices are legitimate Islamically. Excerpt:

Salams,

I'm a gay, Muslim male in my late 20s. I follow, respect and admire the work of such wonderful people as Daayiee Abdullah, Amina Wadud, Muhsin Hendricks, Kecia Ali, Siraj Kugle etc. I myself have become quite spiritually alienated from Islam for various reasons, but I am by no means hostile to `Islam' anymore. The `Islam' I am hostile to is the one that, for years, made me feel horrible about myself and made me live in fear of being myself.

It's been such a huge relief to discover the works of these people I've mentioned, because they give me another option of Islam. But I guess there are just some things that are more difficult to recover, for example, my spiritual connection to Islam. I consider myself a re-constructed Muslim. One who doesn't need to believe this faith is superior to any other. One who believes that in essence, any belief system that makes a person strive to be unconditionally kind and loving must be a good one. I'm a Muslim who could as well be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Jew, or even an agnostic, but who remains Muslim by choice.

But I still struggle with many things. I live in an extremely conservative, homophobic and predominantly Muslim environment. There is an encroaching fundamentalism that scares me, too. I'm actually comfortable being in my own skin as a gay Muslim man now, but I fear for my life if anyone were to find out that I'm gay. It's funny – the more I learn to accept myself as a gay Muslim, the more pronounced the threats around me seem to grow.

A Unique Perspective

Here we discuss the concept and emergence of "Gay Muslims", considering that homosexual activity is clearly forbidden in Islam. We kindly advise Muslims struggling with same-sex attraction, affirming that nobody is sinful for what they feel inside. As for those people who try to distort the religion, we refute them soundly with evidence.